WILLIAM G. ROSS
Website: williamgeorgeross.com
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
Constitutional Law in Context (textbook with Michael Kent Curtis, J. Wilson Parker,
Davison M. Douglas, and Paul Finkelman) (Carolina Academic Press, 3rd ed.,
2011);
The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930-1941 (University of South
Carolina Press, 2007) (recipient of Lightfoot, Franklin & White Award for
Faculty Scholarship, 2008);
Legal Fees: Law and Management (with John W. Toothman) (Carolina Academic Press,
2003);
The Honest Hour: The Ethics of Time-Based Billing By Attorneys (Carolina Academic
Press, 1996) (revised second edition in progress);
Forging New Freedoms: Nativism, Education and the Courts, 1917-1927 (University of
Nebraska Press, 1994) (recipient of the Outstanding Book Award from the
Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America);
A Muted Fury: Populists, Progressives, and Labor Unions Confront the Courts, 18901937 (Princeton University Press, 1994).
Book Chapters:
“German-Americans” in Charles Riggs, ed., Immigrant Challenges, Immigrant Gifts 1535 (George Mason University Press, 2012);
“Meyer v. Nebraska,” in Alan Gless, ed., A Legal History of Nebraska, pp. 271-88 (Ohio
State University Press, 2008);
“The Hughes Court (1930-1941): Evolution and Revolution,” in Christopher Tomlins.
ed., The United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice, pp. 223-48
(Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005).
Selected Articles:
“The Controversy over U.S. Membership in the League of Nations, 1918-1920,”
53 American Journal of Legal History 1-88 (2013);
“The Supreme Court as an Issue in Presidential Campaigns,” 37 Journal of Supreme
Court History 322-34 (2012);
“The Presidential Aspirations of U.S. Supreme Court Justices: A History and an Ethical
Warning,” Northern Kentucky Law Review 115-72 (2011);
“Abuse of Hourly Billing: Results of a Recent Survey,” Accounting and Financial
Planning Law Firms (October 2007);
“The Role of Religion in the 1937 Court Packing Controversy,” 23 Journal of Law and
Religion 629-72 (2007-08);
“When Did the ‘Switch in Time’ Actually Occur?: Re-Discovering the Supreme Court’s
‘Forgotten’ Decisions of 1936-37,” 37 Arizona State Law Journal 1153-1220
(2006);
“The Ethics of Double Billing,” Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms, April
2004, at 1;
“The Ethics of Billing by the Hour for Re-Cycled Work,” Accounting and Financial
Planning for Law Firms, August 2003, at 1;
“The Resilience of Marbury v. Madison: Why Judicial Review Has Survived So Many
Court-Curbing Proposals” 38 Wake Forest Law Review 733-792 (2003);
“Attacks on the Warren Court by State Officials: A Case Study in Why Court-Curbing
Movements Fail,” 50 Buffalo Law Review 483-612 (2002);
“The Role of Judicial Issues in Presidential Campaigns,” 42 Santa Clara Law Review
391-482 (2002);
“The Role of Ideology in the Federal Judicial Selection Process,” 7 Nexus: A Journal of
Opinion 39-45 (2002);
“An Ironic and Unnecessary Dilemma: Restrictions on Billing Guidelines and
Submission of Legal Bills to Outside Auditors,” 14 Notre Dame Journal of Law,
Ethics, and Public Policy 527-88 (2000) (reprinted in 51:3 Defense Law Journal
409-70 (2002);
“The Questioning of Lower Federal Court Nominees at Senate Confirmation Hearings,”
10 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 119-76 (2001);
“The 75th Anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters: Reasons to Celebrate,” 78 Detroit
Mercy Law Review 443-462 (2001) (article solicited for conference);
“The Contemporary Significance of Pierce v. Society of Sisters,” 34 Akron Law Review
177-207 (2000) (article solicited for conference);
“Civility among Judges: Charting the Bounds of Proper Criticism by Judges of Other
Judges,” 51 Florida Law Review 957-73 (1999);
2
“Kicking the Unethical Billing Habit,” 50 Rutgers Law Review, 2199-2210 (1998);
“Some Religiously Devout Judges: Historical Notes and Comments” (with Thomas C.
Berg), 81 Marquette Law Review 383-415 (1998);
“The Senate's Constitutional Role in the Confirmation of Cabinet Members and Other
Executive Officials,” 48 Syracuse Law Review, 1123-1221 (1998);
“The Ethics of Time-Based Billing by Attorneys,” 58 Alabama Lawyer 40-43 (1997);
“Scholarly Legal Monographs: Advantages of the Road Less Taken,” (part of symposium
issue on legal scholarship), 30 Akron Law Review 259-266 (1996);
“Measuring the Ethics of Hourly Billing Practices,” 9 No. 2 Accounting for Lawyers 1
(1996);
“The Ratings Game: Ranking Supreme Court Justices,” 79 Marquette Law Review 401452 (1996);
“Formulating Standards for Ethical Billing,” 35 Law Office Economics and Management
301-07 (1994);
“Walter Clark of North Carolina: Antagonist of the Federal Judiciary,” 3 Journal of
Southern Legal History 1-35 (1994);
“The Supreme Court Appointment Process: A Search for a Synthesis,” 57 Albany Law
Review 993-1042 (1994);
“The Ethics of Hourly Billing by Attorneys,” 44 Rutgers Law Review 1-100 (1991);
“The Hazards of Recent Proposals to Limit the Tenure of Federal Judges and to Permit
Judicial Removal Without Impeachment,” 35 Villanova Law Review, 1063-1138
(1990);
“The Legal Career of John Quincy Adams,” 23 Akron Law Review, 415-453 (1990);
“Participation by the Public in the Federal Judicial Selection Process,” 43 Vanderbilt Law
Review, 1-84 (1990);
“Extrajudicial Speech: Charting the Boundaries of Propriety,” 2 The Georgetown Journal
of Legal Ethics 589-632 (1989);
“A Judicial Janus: Meyer v. Nebraska in Historical Perspective,” 57 The University of
Cincinnati Law Review 125-204 (1988);
“The Need for an Exclusive and Uniform Application of ‘Neutral Principles’ in the
3
Adjudication of Church Property Disputes,” 32 St. Louis Law Journal 263-316
(1987);
“The Questioning of Supreme Court Nominees at Senate Confirmation Hearings:
Proposals for Accommodating the Needs of the Senate and Ameliorating the
Fears of the Nominees,” 62 Tulane Law Review 113-174 (1987);
“The Functions, Roles and Duties of the Senate in the Supreme Court Nomination
Process,” 28 William and Mary Law Review 633-682 (1987).
Book Reviews:
Anne Emanuel, “Elbert Parr Tuttle: Chief Jurist of the Civil Rights Movement,” in
Judicature 237-39 (March/April, 2012);
Paula Abrams, “Cross-Purposes: Pierce v. Society of Sisters and the Struggle over
Compulsory Public Education,” 28 Law and History Review 1076-78 (2010);
D. Don Welch, “The Vanderbilt Law School: Aspirations and Realities,” in 27 Law and
History Review 480-82 (2009);
Ruth O’Brien, “Worker’s Paradox: The Republican Origins of New Deal Labor Policy,
1886-1935,” in 106 American Historical Review 590-91 (April 2001);
Gilbert C. Gall, Lee Pressman, “The New Deal, and the CIO,” in 105 American
Historical Review 952-953 (June 2000);
James W. Ely, “The Chief Justiceship of Melville W. Fuller,” in 101 American Historical
Review 923 (June 1996);
David C. Frederick, “Rugged Justice: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the
American West,” in 26 Western Historical Quarterly 251 (1995);
Owen Fiss, “History of the Supreme Court of the United States: Troubled Beginnings of
the Modern State, 1888-1910,” in 34 American Journal of Legal History 99-100
(1995);
Philippa Strum, “Brandeis: Beyond Progressivism,” in 540 The Annals of the American
Academy of Social Science 177-78 (1995).
Encyclopedia Articles:
– contributor to The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic
History (forthcoming): “Godcharles v. Wigeman; United States v. E.C. Knight."
4
– contributor to The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Oxford
University Press, 2009): “United States Law – Equity.”
– contributor to Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties (Routledge Reference, 2006):
“Sandra Day O’Connor.”
– contributor to The American Midwest: An Interpretative Encyclopedia (Indiana
University Press, 2006): “Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller.”
– contributor to Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Oxford
University Press, Kermit L.Hall, ed., 2d ed., 2005): “Public Opinion; First
Amendment.”
– contributor to Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (University of Nebraska Press, 2004,
David J. Wishart, ed.): “Meyer v. Nebraska.”
– contributor to Major Acts of Congress (MacMillan Reference USA, 2004): “KeatingsOwen Act of 1916.”
– contributor to Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2003): “Walter
Clark.”
– contributor to The Oxford Companion to American Law (Oxford University Press,
2002): “Sacco and Vanzetti; Leopold and Loeb; RICO, Law Firms; The
Haymarket Affair.”
– contributor to Great American Lawyers: An Encylopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2001): “John
Quincy Adams.”
– contributor to Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century (Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 2000): “The Supreme Court; The Legal Profession.”
– contributor to American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999): “Walter
Clark; William D. Guthrie; Leon Jaworski; Lorna Lockwood; Arthur T. Mullen;
Theophilus Parsons; John J. Sirica; Robert von Moschzisker; and Edward Bennett
Williams.”
– contributor to The Encyclopedia of Law and Religion , Paul Finkelman, ed.(Garland
Press, 1999): “The Religion of the United States Supreme Court Justices; Jews
and American Religious Freedom; United States v. MacIntosh; Jones v. Wolf;
Meyer v. Nebraska; Vatican and Diplomatic Recognition; Snake-Handling Cults;
5
and Public Schools and Controversies over Religion during the Nineteenth
Century.”
Other Publications:
Legal Times:
– “Debating a Legacy,” March 5, 2001, at 58;
– “Fighting Over the Court: It’s tough to make the Supreme Court into an election issue,”
October 9, 2000, at 75.
JURIST columns (online):
– “Obama’s Comments and Challenges to Judicial Review,” April 12, 2012;
– “Popular Vote Compact: Fraught with Constitutional Peril,” February 28, 2012;
– “Arizona’s Immigration Law: Constitutional, but..., May 3, 2010;
– “Roberts’s Response: Not Out of Line (Either),” March 16, 2010;
– “Constructive Criticism: Presidential Opposition to Supreme Court Rulings,” February 2,
2010;
– “Should Obama Nominate a Justice without Judicial Experience?,” May 15, 2009;
– “‘Advice and Consent’: How the Senate Should Vet Obama Cabinet Picks,” February 9, 2009;
– “Why the Supreme Court Matters in the Presidential Election,” October 20, 2008;
– “Mukasey Nomination Requires Robust Scrutiny on Senate Floor,” November 6, 2007;
– “Better Luck Next Time: Why Alito Is Hard to Beat,” October 31, 2005;
– “Two Cheers for Harriet Miers,” October 17, 2005;
– “Roberts Day 4: A Ritual of Democracy,” September 16, 2005;
– “Roberts Day 3: The Search for Compassion,” September 15, 2005;
– “Roberts Day 2: Questions and Answers,” September 14, 2005;
– “Roberts Day 1: Play Ball!,” September 13, 2005;
– “Supreme Test: the Questioning of John Roberts,” August 30, 2005;
– “Why the Supreme Court is Not an Election Issue, and Why it Should Become One,” October
21, 2004;
– “Scalia Explanation for Recusal Refusal is Unconvincing,” March 22, 2004;
– “Bush Immigration Plan Would Reward Lawlessness,” Jan. 8, 2004;
– “Supreme Court's Judicial Speech Decision Compromises Judicial Independence,” July 25,
2002;
– “Bush v. Gore Has Not Wounded the U.S. Supreme Court,” May 2, 2002;
– “Bickering over Pickering is Good for Democracy's Health,” Feb. 26, 2002;
– “Federal Judicial Nominees Should Have Nothing to Hide,” Dec. 19, 2001;
– “Go Slow on National Identification Cards,” Nov. 7, 2001;
– “Judge Jackson's Disqualification in the Microsoft Case: An Object Lesson in the Perils of
Extra-judicial Speech,” July 2, 2001;
– “Should Senators Who Switch Parties Be Compelled to Resign?,” May 30, 2001;
– “A Regrettable Step: Reflections on the End of Judicial Screening,” March 29, 2001;
– “Question the President's Pardons, but Not the Pardon Power,” Feb. 6, 2001;
6
– “Rambunctious Cabinet Confirmation Hearings are Healthy,” Jan. 16, 2001;
– “Bush v. Gore and the Prestige of the Supreme Court: A ‘Self-Inflicted Wound'?,” Dec. 13,
2000;
– “Faithless Electors”- The Wild Card,” Dec. 9, 2000;
– “Election Roulette: The Pistol Finally Fires,” Dec. 4, 2000;
– “Don't Litigate- Negotiate!,” Nov. 28, 2000;
– “Does the Supreme Court Rush in Where Wise Judges Would Fear to Tread?,” Nov. 26, 2000.
SELECTED PAPERS GIVEN AT CONFERENCES, AND OTHER PRESENTATIONS
– presentation on Charles Evans Hughes at Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, New York City, June 7,
2011;
– presentation on Arizona’s immigration law at Jones School of Law, Faulkner University, Oct.
21, 2010;
– interview about Arizona’s immigration law on CNN, July 6, 2010;
– keynote address at the first conference of the Council on Ethical Billing, Orlando, Florida,
March 13, 2008;
– presentation on university press publishing at SEAALS conference, Kialeh Island, South
Carolina, July 31, 2002;
– response to Barry Cushman’s Mitchell Lecture at the University at Buffalo Law School, April
5, 2002;
– presentations on judicial ethics at Advanced Judicial College conference sponsored by Texas
Center for the Judiciary, Austin, Texas, March 21, 2001;
– member of State Bar of Texas professional development panel on “Ethics and Malpractice
Avoidance for Business/Corporate Lawyers and Litigators,” Dallas, Texas, November 3,
2000;
– presentation at conference marking the 75th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters,
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, October 6, 2000;
– keynote address at U.S. Department of Education conference marking the 75th anniversary of
Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Washington, D.C., July 11, 2000;
– presentation on ethical issues involving law clerks at conference of Florida staff attorneys,
Tampa, Florida, April 12, 2000;
– presentation at conference on education and the Constitution, University of Akron Law Center,
March 31, 2000;
– member of panel at conference on attorney fee issues, Phoenix, Arizona, February 22, 1999;
7
– member of panel on judicial ethics at ABA annual meeting, Toronto, Ontario, August 1, 1998;
– presentation on billing ethics at ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility,
Montreal, Quebec, May 29, 1998, published as ‘The Ethics of Time Based Billing by
Attorneys,” at pages 81-88 of the 1998 symposium issue of The Professional Lawyer;
– “The Constitutional Significance of the Scottsboro Cases,” response to Dan T. Carter at Roy
Rushton Distinguished Lecturer Series, Cumberland School of Law, April 24, 1998;
published at 28 Cumberland Law Review 591-97 (1998);
– keynote address at conference on attorney billing practices, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2, 1998;
– presentation on billing ethics at continuing legal education seminar, Dallas, Texas, October 10,
1997;
– presentation on billing ethics at continuing legal education seminar, Jackson, Mississippi, April
25, 1997;
–"The Enigma of Crime," response to Lawrence M. Friedman at Roy Rushton Distinguished
Lecturer Series, Cumberland School of Law, February 28, 1997; published at 27
Cumberland Law Review 951-57 (1997);
– “Finding the Lost Lawyers in a Civil Society,” response to Anthony Kronman at Roy Rushton
Distinguished Lecturer Series, Cumberland School of Law, March 1, 1996; published at
26 Cumberland Law Review 851-57 (1996);
– “The Perils of Selective Abandonment of Double Jeopardy,” response to Akhil Reed Amar at
Roy Rushton Distinguished Lecturer Series, Cumberland School of Law, March 1, 1995;
published at 26 Cumberland Law Review 57-61 (1996);
– presentation on billing ethics to attorneys at Dun and Bradstreet, Inc., Murray Hill, New Jersey,
July 25, 1995;
– speech on billing ethics at law seminar on attorneys' fees, London, England, July 11, 1995;
– conducted all-day seminar on judicial ethics to convocation of the New Hampshire judiciary,
North Conway, New Hampshire, June 16, 1995;
– keynote address on billing ethics at law seminar, "Controlling Your Legal Costs," San
Francisco, April 21, 1995;
– 27-minute interview on the Supreme Court appointments process, aired on C-SPAN, June 4,
1993;
– talk on the reform of the Supreme Court appointments process, given at Library of Congress
8
symposium, May 17, 1993;
– "A Muted Fury: Attempts by Populists, Progressives and Trade Unions to Curb Federal
Judicial Power, 1890-1937," a paper delivered before the American Society for Legal
History, Sam Francisco, October 23, 1991;
– "Meyer v. Nebraska: A Missing Link in Constitutional History?," a paper delivered at a
symposium on "Law, the Bill of Rights and the Great Plains," sponsored by the Center
for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska, March 8, 1991;
– talk on the propriety of extra-judicial speech given at a conference on judicial ethics at
Georgetown Law Center, sponsored by the National Judicial College and the Georgetown
Journal of Legal Ethics, October 8, 1988.
9